The Okulus #1: Aero Manzinilla, the Mentalist Warrior

-Kira-

Growing up with Kai and Caterina Volkov as parents made me excited to one day meet my mate. They’re inseparable; my father worships the ground my mother walks on and to this day he would burn down cities if she asked it of him.

Being around their all-encompassing love and affection showed me what the Mate Bond should look and feel like. A standard on which I would base my own Bond. I couldn’t wait to be loved so fiercely; to have my mate look at me the way my father looks at my mother. I wanted the intoxicating feeling of being with my mate and knowing he feels the same.

But when the time came, to say that it disappointed me is an understatement.

I met my mate when I turned 18; spotted him from across the hall at the Convergence Ball and immediately felt the Mate Bond Sighting click. The pull was there, the utter need to submit to him blindly along with everything else. 

However, the second he looked away, that feeling went along with his gaze. This confused me at first because I know how powerful the Mate Bond can be. So why was this so different? Why do I feel nothing when I look away, then total infatuation when our eyes meet?

Sometimes I think I’m the one at fault for already being secretly in love with someone else. Even as the Mate bond Sighting clicked and even as I stand here in a wedding dress, he still invades my thoughts. I feel for him what I should feel for my mate and it’s all so wrong.

“Are you going to stand there all day and not say anything, Blue?” His husky voice cuts through my thoughts and I breathe out a sigh. I slowly open my eyes, only to gasp at my own reflection in the mirror; surely that can’t be right?

The sweetheart neckline, off-the-shoulder sleeves and mermaid silhouette dress made from the finest silk and lace fit my body like a glove. I see my face in the mirror, but I do not recognize the grown woman staring back at me.

Two gentle hands are placed on my shoulders and my mother’s face peeks out from behind me. “You look beautiful, my love; I think this is the one,” she says in a voice filled with so much pride that I nearly burst out crying.

But I compose myself, then turn around to face the elephant in the room. Leaning back on the leather sofa, he regards me with a mischievous look in his permanent crimson eyes and shoots me a smirk that has my heart doing flips.

Tall, tanned, and tattooed; this man shouldn’t be the object of my affection. He shouldn’t invade my thoughts on a daily basis. I shouldn’t fantasize about his hands all over my body and in my hair as he claims me with a fierce kiss. 

Arkyn Vega has the ability to turn my mind into a full-on, filthy porn movie. How the hell did I manage to fall for my best friend?

“Well, what do you think?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow, hoping that my thoughts don’t show on my face.

He leans forward, bracing his arms on his knees and lifting two fingers to his lips. “Well, it doesn’t look too terrible,” he teases and winks at me, sending a dull throb right to my core.

“Don’t listen to him!” My mother exclaims and walks up to Arkyn, slapping his shoulder playfully, but Arkyn merely takes her hand in his and kisses the back of it before turning his gaze back on me.

“You look exquisite, Blue; your mate will realize how lucky he is when he sees you walking towards him wearing this,” he says, causing my heart to constrict and I find myself holding my breath. 

His eyes bore into mine and his smile wavers ever so slightly before his cell phone rings. This seems to snap him out of whatever was running through his mind and he clears his throat. “It’s my father, I have to take it,” he says when he pulls his phone out, then walks out of the bridal fitting room.

I brought him here to see if he would look at me differently in a wedding dress, but he still only saw me as Blue; the nickname he gave me when we first met. He wouldn’t stop calling me that because apparently, my eyes were the bluest he’d ever seen, and it just stuck.

Arkyn will only ever see me as a sister, and it breaks my heart even though it shouldn’t.

When he leaves, it feels like I can breathe again. I walk over to the sofa and sit down. My mother joins me soon after. 

“Still?” she asks without the need to elaborate, and I nod.

“It hasn’t left even when I met Adryan; in fact, it feels even more potent now,” I say, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. “Did I mess with our Bond because I am in love with Arkyn?”

My mother takes my hand and sighs. “I don’t think it’s love that you feel for Arkyn, Kira. You two have been in one another’s lives since you were six years old. There’s bound to be an attraction. Try not to think about it too much, okay? The Goddess chose your mate for a reason, she knows you’ll be happier with Adryan. Trust in her choice, my love.”

The same repeated line and I give her the same old reassuring smile. I should trust in the Goddess’ choice, especially since Adryan is of old enemy blood. Everyone saw this as the Goddess wanting our packs to live in peace, so I have a lot sitting on my shoulders.

But I know what I am feeling, and when I look at Arkyn, it is not simply brotherly love. It has bothered me to no end and I can’t speak with my mother about this since she fiercely believes in the Goddess’ choices. She would since she is the reincarnation of the Moon Goddess herself.

I can’t help but wonder if the Goddess made a mistake.